If you had a house issue, during Covid ...

[Spryte]

How would you handle needing multiple workers in your home multiple times a day?

Sigh.

We are a Covid cautious, high risk family.  Immune compromised (3 of us), high BP, asthma, and a frail 80 yr old.

We are all on the list for the vaccine due to medical/age reasons, but hasn’t happened yet.

We had a plumbing issue Sat night.  Water poured through the master bathroom floor/wall into a hall next to it, through the ceiling into kitchen.  I think it stopped there.  Hopefully.  We have removed the kitchen light fixtures, have dehumidifiers running and fans everywhere.  The moisture meter isn’t budging in the kitchen ceiling, though.

We will likely need to call for water mitigation.

They will be in our master bath, hallway outside kids and elder’s rooms, and their bathroom, and in the kitchen/open living area.  

We could all hang in the basement but there’s no bathroom, so we will have to go to the kitchen/living area.

I don’t know the best way to handle the increased risk of workers in the home.  Any tips?

 

[mommyoffive]

First off sorry for the disaster.  Stressful under normal life, but even more so with Covid. 

I don't know what this is going to entail for them fixing the issues. 

Call whatever company and explain that you are very Covid safe and high risk.  Make sure they are going to mask.  Send their safest people.  People who are always masking. 

I would have all you mask while there are there. 

Air out the house when they are there and when they leave.  Even if it is winter and cold by you.  

Clean surfaces when they leave. 

If it is a big fix, maybe stay in an Airbnb

 

[Spryte]

Ok.  Open windows.  Run air filter, exhaust fans. Wipe down when they leave.  

I’ll definitely ask for the people who mask all the time - and hope they send them.  I would not have thought of that, thanks.

Is there any benefit to spraying Lysol?  In the air?  I don’t usually do that.

I think we will have water mitigation out, they usually come once a day.  After that, if work (to fix things cosmetically) can be delayed, I will try to delay.

This really stinks.

Any more thoughts or advice welcome!
 

 

[mommyoffive]

Hiring In-Home Services or Repairs | CDC

 

In-Home Repairs: Keeping Your Home Safe During COVID-19 - SafeHome.org

 

Home Service Call During the Coronavirus Pandemic - Consumer Reports

[happi duck]

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/at-home/in-home-services.html

We used the above advice when we needed repairs.

[Junie]

(((Spryte)))

Yes, I would definitely do as was mentioned and ask for people who mask consistently and explain your high-risk situation.

I would also spend as much time outdoors as possible while the workers are there (and for a little while after they leave).

Since they will be in the kitchen, I would prepare lunch ahead of time and set it in the fridge so that you only have to spend a minute grabbing lunch to (hopefully) eat elsewhere.

If you have more than one bathroom, I would reserve one for use for your family only (not the workers).

 

[Harriet Vane]

Honestly, can you tarp off part of the house in addition to all the open windows and masking? Use aggressive amounts of painter's tape to hold up thin plastic sheeting separating who can go where. With all those issues I don't think it's over the top to do this. And make sure workers know that even with tarps or taped off doorways, they must wear masks and keep windows open and fans on.

[prairiewindmomma]

We’ve had to do this. We shut down the HVAC, and put everyone upstairs but me. I open windows downstairs, weather permissible, and run the HEPA units. I wear a N95. I keep the HEPA going for another hour and leave everybody upstairs until I am sure we have had several air exchanges.

Everyone on my property comes with a mask....but when one of our electrical panels caught on fire last week (seriously), the tech was coughing occasionally. 
 

We do what we have to do, iykwim. 
 

Fwiw, we find Lysol to be a huge lung irritant. We definitely don’t spray aerosols into the air.

[TravelingChris]

We have had several issues,  Last week, our heater stopped working.  Dh called and dealt with worker and I stayed away.  I am the high risk person.  We do have a large house so it is easy to do.

[Ausmumof3]

If you are super worried could you get an air bnb while the repairs happen?  I know that has its own risks but they are manageable.  
 

totally understand if that’s not possible as it wouldn’t be for us, just a thought 

[kristin0713]

We had to have mold remediation done right when the lockdown started last year.  It had taken us awhile to figure out what to do and who to use and then COVID hit.  We moved in with my parents during the work. 

[MEmama]

We had a heating issue for one zone of our house and needed someone to fix the boiler. Thankfully they could enter through a side door and go straight to the basement without entering the house, but they did have to go upstairs to check the thermostat once. They were masked and so were we, and after they left the room we closed the door and ran a HEPA air purifier. We couldn’t seal off the basement since we keep the litter box there, but we did avoid it as possible for a day.
 

I would never, ever allow an unmasked worker (or any person at all other than the three of us) inside my home. Thankfully that’s expected here and we didn’t have to ask. I would definitely extend the same courtesy to them and also be masked indoors at all times they are working.

Yes to as much ventilation as possible, for your safety and theirs. 

[BusyMom5]

So we had our heating system go down, calle repair guys out.  DH talked to them- mask less- explaining the situation.   5 days later the guy was Covid+.  DH did not get it, none of us got sick.  

[NorthwestMom]

I am so sorry to read this. We had a similar disaster pre-covid and I am still traumatized when I hear water running unexpectedly. The workers were basically in our house one day for about 6 hours, setting up massive fans and removing drywall and ruined items. Having windows and doors open and avoiding the work area will facilitate the work they are doing anyway. One worker came to check the moisture levels daily and removed the fans when the subfloors were dry.  You definitely need to get this service done professionally or you will end up with bigger problems in the future.

Your family can manage this one-day incursion; the question is, what will you do when you need to have workers repair the damage and restore to normal?  We stayed in a VRBO for 2 weeks; insurance paid for it and for the kennel for the pets. 

[sassenach]

We've actually had several house projects done during this time. Everyone has been really good about masking and the truth is that we don't spend a lot of time around the workers. We give them their space and then air things out/wipe down afterwards. We have one very high risk kid and we keep him in an isolated room while the workers are here. Even though our house is small, I've never felt unsafe.

[happypamama]

I'm sorry you're dealing with all of this -- what a hassle!

 

My husband is that person who is in people's houses and such during covid because of his job.  He wears a mask, and I think he'd have no problem being extra cautious with a particularly high risk family.  Because his job carries a certain amount of unavoidable risk, we are pretty careful about adding additional risk, so we haven't seen grandparents or friends in months, really don't go places that aren't necessities, etc.  I'd probably just state up front that you need to be extra cautious and to ask if they have people they can send who have smaller bubbles.  Maybe provide hand sanitizer at the door and disposable masks too just in case.

[Spryte]

Thanks for all the help! You all made me feel better during the night while I had panic attacks about calling for pros.  Thank you.  

Update:  things are actually looking pretty positive here.  This isn’t our first round with a water issue, unfortunately, so we’ve called water mitigation and dealt with a lot of this before.  More times than we should have!  So ... having lived through that, we have on hand a moisture meter for drywall and ceilings and floors.  And some “air movers” ... we used those items the first night, and DH removed any light fixtures that were wet.  Nothing changed.  Aaack.  So yesterday we bought a huge dehumidifier, set it up high, near the ceiling, and crossed our fingers.  We used a shop vac to blow air into the ceiling cavity, too, and some other smaller items.  We went to bed with readings in the 60s, knowing we would call water mitigation this morning.  (You have three days, generally, before mold growth, so time is short.) This morning ... the ceiling reads 0!!!!  
 

You could have knocked me over.  I had panic attacks all night over this.  And - 0!  Yay!  We, at first, thought the meter was not working, but it’s showing readings everywhere it should.  I think it’s good.
 

Our upstairs hall has cork flooring, and that area has a low moisture reading now (around 5-8) but it’s been coming down.  We’ve rearranged the various equipment to really attack that area.  If it comes down completely soon, I think we will be ok!

 

The only damage I can see so far is the cork floor seams are now visible in one spot if the light hits right.  I really don’t want to replace the floor up there right now, during Covid, so as long as things are completely dry, and mold is not a threat, we will live with it. It’s a continuous floor so would mean kids and elder’s rooms would be replaced too.  Ugh!

 

Whew.  Fingers crossed that the upstairs floor dries out completely and we’re good.